Big blow for Oltchim as Stanca departs

Ionela Stanca is no longer a Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea player, after the team could not pay her wages in due time.

Just days before the decisive clash with FTC Rail Cargo Hungaria in the Women’s EHF Champions League Main Round, Oltchim have lost one of their most influential players.

Stanca left the club after the Romanian champions only managed to pay one month of her salary before the deadline of her official protest to the Romanian federation.

“We announced to the Romanian federation that we no longer are interested in Ionela Stanca. She is free to go effective immediately and can sign with another club,” Oltchim’s president Petre Berbecaru told Romanian newspaper ProSport.

“We are very disappointed to lose Stanca, but she isn’t irreplaceable. This club helped her a lot, but she couldn’t understand our problems,” added Berbecaru.

Ionela Stanca has been an Oltchim player for six years and won five Romanian championships, the EHF Cup Winners’ Cup in 2007 and the EHF Champions’ Trophy in 2007. This season, the 32-year-old line player scored 22 goals for the Romanian champions in the competition.